In London, the Arts Club is officially founded at its inaugural General Meeting

An elite Arts Club was the idea of wealthy amateur artist Arthur J. Lewis and was discussed at a preliminary meeting in March 1863, with Thomas Hughes in the chair.  The new men's club had its home at 17, Hanover Street in London's Mayfair and its initial membership included, among others, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Frederic Leighton, George Du Maurier, and Edmund Yates.  James Whistler, Rudyard Kipling, and other leading artists and writers soon joined. The club exists today at its second home in Dover Street. (By John Osborne)